Seaside, Oregon

We arrived safely in Seaside, Oregon last week and then got so busy having fun, I just didn't have time to post. :)

 We stayed at the Seaside Thousand Trails which was one of the nicest parks we have stayed at in the Thousand Trails system.

Over the weekend, the 32nd annual Seaside Beach Volleyball Tournament was held.  It is the largest amateur beach volleyball tournament in the world. There were over a thousand teams entered with over 100 nets with simultaneous games. It was pretty amazing to watch.

One day we went to visit the Cape Meares Lighthouse just south of Tillamook Bay.  It was first lit in 1890 and is 38 feet tall, making it one of the shortest lighthouses on the Oregon coast.  

It was a cloudy day when we visited, but the views were still pretty spectacular.

Cape Meares is also a National Wildlife Refuge and is the nesting site for a large population of the Common Murre.  I was able to zoom up to the island where they were nesting.

We also stopped at the Tillamook Cheese Factory to sample cheese and ice cream.  Yum! We passed the fields with the "Tillamook" cows and were also able to watch the big blocks of cheese being reduced to the commercial store size packages.

One day when we were missing the sun, we drove inland to pick blueberries and then stopped at the Camp 18 Restaurant.  We enjoyed our meal in the log cabin dining room.  We also spent some time looking at the wood sculptures inside and out.

We did have one day that we woke up to sunshine and blue skies and they stayed that way to sunset.  That hasn't happened very often in the last five weeks we have been on the northern coastline.  We made the best of it.  Our friends Matt and Michelle came over for lunch and we went out to Eola State Park to see Cannon Beach and the Tillamook Lighthouse nicknamed "Terrible Tillie" due to the erratic weather conditions and the dangerous commute for both the keepers and the suppliers.

The little coastal town of Astoria is about twenty miles north of seaside.  We spent a day exploring the sights there.  Fort Clatsop National Historic Site is not too far from town.  It was the winter headquarters for the Lewis and Clark Expedition.  There was an excellent movie at the Visitor's Center as well as a docent who explained life at the fort.  It was all extremely interesting.

After exploring Fort Clatsop, we drove to the Astoria Column sitting 600 feet above sea level on Coxcomb Hill.  It was completed in 1926 and is 125 feet high.  There is a spiral staircase with 164 steps  that you can climb to the top and see some incredible views.

 We wished we could stay longer at Seaside, but it is a very popular resort and was all booked up until after Labor Day.  We'll head to our next stop on the Washington coastline.